Understanding Organizational Memory

It is generally recognized that Walsh and Ungson (1991) “provided the first integrative framework for thinking about organizational memory” (Olivera, 2000, p. 813). Within the field of knowledge management (KM), there has been interest in a variety of issues surrounding organizational memory (OM), which is understood to involve processes of storage and retrieval of organizational knowledge of the past for use in both the present and the future. The recognition of the importance of OM has implications for practice. For example, Argote, Beckman, and Epple (1990) suggest that the effective use of OM can protect an organization from some of the negative effects of staff loss, while Stein (1995, p. 19) asserts that an appreciation of OM can facilitate the solution of problems associated with the retention and utilization of knowledge within organizations. Although the need to preserve knowledge in organizations is now recognized, organizational theorists still disagree on a number of issues relating to OM. Existing literature exhibits contradictory arguments regarding OM which can make the relevance and application of OM concepts to KM difficult to understand. This chapter describes some of the disagreements surrounding OM in order to provide a deeper understanding of how OM might help to manage knowledge.